


How Long Do You Want to Be Loved?

by interestedbystander



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Parental Feels, The Blip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 09:43:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21052322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interestedbystander/pseuds/interestedbystander
Summary: Written for a challenge on Tumblr: forehead kisses.





	How Long Do You Want to Be Loved?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a challenge on Tumblr: forehead kisses.

“You know when you’ve done something incredibly amazing?” Richard Parker whispered as he shuffled his weight carefully on his exhausted wife’s hospital bed.

Mary looked up with a small, fond smile. “What do you mean?”

Richard gently palmed the swaddled sleeping bundle from his protective arms to his eager, though weary, wife. “Mary, something really good. Something makes you wonder what you did right in your life to be so blessed.”

Lightly brushing back the muslin wrapped over the soft features of baby boy Parker, Mary was overwhelmed at the beauty of the situation they had found themselves in and blinked back unexplainable tears once again, almost unable to believe that the angel in her arms was theirs and theirs alone. “I think I know, darling.”

With a small knock on the door and the appearance of a nurse signaled the end of visiting hours for the day and Richard nodded regrettably. The last thing he wanted to do leave his new family but rules were rules. “Okay,” he told the nurse who gave a small, relieved smile and made her exit. “I don’t know how I can leave,” Richard admitted barely above a whisper as he watched Mary, the mother of his infant son, trace her slender finger across the bridge of his teeny nose and continuing to the apples of his cheeks, mesmerised. “I can’t leave him.”

Mary understood.

A few minutes of goodbyes and the return of the nurse a little sterner this time, Richard was quietly ushered from the maternity suite and Mary found herself alone with her fair son for the first time and the waves of terror enveloped her.

Unprepared, overwhelmed, drowning in emotions she’d never felt before.

_“You’re a mother now,” Mary’s mother had said earlier that afternoon as she held her grandson proudly in her arms. “You’re life is irrevocably changed and you’ll never be the same again, Mary.”_

“You may not know this, my darling son… but you will be capable of amazing things. I love you so much and you’ve only been in the world for such a short amount of time although I already feel like I’ve loved you my entire life and may lifetimes before that. I will do everything in my power to protect you and darned be the person that ever tries to hurt you.”

Watching him open his eyes to blink slow at his mother and yawning far too wide for a baby of only hours old, Mary giggled as her eyes welled and he wriggled to reveal a little hand from the blankets. He clearly was not enjoying being tied down under any circumstance. She offered him her pinkie and he wrapped his little ones around it before his eyes closed again, content.

“Goodnight, sweet boy. Welcome to the world,” Mary told him, leaning over to place a single kiss between his eyebrows. “You will be so loved. And I will protect and love you until my last breath… _Peter_.”

* * *

Mary was failing to hide her apprehension as she stood at the school gate, her clammy hands holding Peter’s small one tightly. He was desperately trying to cross the threshold and start his first day of big school.

Mary, on the other hand, was not remotely ready to let her little boy go - like most anxious mothers surrounding her, she wasn’t willing to part with her child, especially one who was growing up the way Peter appeared to be.

He had always enjoyed sciences and numbers from an early age, excelling in them, begging for any time in the lab with his father until he’d worn Richard down enough to say ‘yes’. While Peter was interested playing with other children, he was quite clumsy at the best of times and ended up with many cuts and scraps she had to contend with when he came back from kindergarten and found himself a little teased by the other children because of it.

“Mama, I’m going to be late,” Peter persisted, yanking at Mary’s hand again, desperately trying to break free.

“_Beep, beep_!” a child’s voice said behind them, barreling excitedly through Mary and Peter’s hands, knocking Peter to the ground unexpectedly.

“Neddy!” another voice hollered as Mary helped Peter to his feet and brush him off, biting back her annoyance at the other boisterous child.

“I’m sorry, I’m just so excited to start school!” the little boy ran back over with a wide smile. “I’m Ned. Who are you?” he asked Peter.

“I’m… I’m Peter Parker,” Peter said shyly, now needing his mother’s hand to hold. She gave Peter a hopeful smile, relieved she wasn’t completely ditched just yet.

“Are you starting today too?”

Peter only nodded as Mary readjusted his backpack over his little shoulders.

“Come on then, Peter! We’re going to be late!” Ned exclaimed as he bounded towards the stairs, waving for Peter to join him as he looked up at Mary, a wide grin forming on his face. His excitement was palpable.

“That’s my new friend,” Peter said, his happiness radiating. “_Ned_.”

“That’s your friend, Ned,” Mary confirmed with a watery smile as the bell rang. “How lovely.”

“Mama!” Peter whined as Mary knelt to meet his eyes. “Don’t cry. It’s not the end of the world.”

“I know, I know,” she admitted, but wondered why it suddenly felt like it was. “Good luck today, I love you. Be good and I’ll be right here at the end of the day to pick you up, okay?”

“Okay, Mama,” Peter said, exasperated. Mary attempted a chaste kiss on his hairline before Peter took off up the stairs, giggling excitedly with Ned. The boys both turned back, waved at their mothers and entered the school entrance.

“Oh dear,” Mary mumbled as she was joined for a lady she figured was Ned’s mother, a random tear spilling.

“Are you okay?” she asked with a slight chuckle, handing Mary a tissue from her purse that she gratefully accepted. “I’m sorry about Ned. He’s very excited today.”

“So is Peter,” Mary replied.

“I assume this is your first baby to go to school?”

“First and only,” Mary sighed as Ned’s mother grinned at her.

“It’ll be okay,” she said. “Come on, let me buy you a coffee. Looks like you need it!”

* * *

May Parker didn’t know how to do this, she realised as her husband, Ben, left a comforting hand on her shoulder. May should be the one doing that to him, she noted but found herself unable to respond to his touch as she continued watching Peter. His eyes low, standing at the footing of his parents gravesite.

May and Ben had spoken about children a lot over the years and if they had wanted to become parents. Ben made no secret he’d always wanted to be a dad but ever since he’d saw the love and devotion he saw in his brother Richard when Peter was born, the desire to be someone’s father went up tenfold.

May never quite took to wanting to be a parent the same way as her husband. She loved Peter and having him around was one of the greatest things in her life. She loved being the cool aunt who took him the cinemas and ate fast food restaurants after, much to his mother’s dismay. But at the end of the day, May could always give Peter a hug, ruffle his messy curls and send him back on his way with Richard and Mary.

_That was no longer the case. _

Her heart ached as Ben left her to approach Peter. The last of the mourners had left the cemetery for coffee and cake at their home nearly an hour earlier, May relieved she’d given her sister the house keys to open up. She knew they may have been the last to leave the funeral, but Peter showed no attempt to want to leave.

May’s head spun as she contemplated how to put herself in Peter’s shoes. How could this little guy contend with losing his parents? He was 6 years old, he was in first grade and was supposed to be guided by his parents. Now that was up to Ben and herself, May reckoned.

May had cried so much in the last few days, but not half as much as she was right now, seeing the sadness emanating from Peter and the bob of his little shoulders as he tried to hold back his heavy sobs. Ben dropped to his knees quietly beside Peter and opened his arms to him, the little guy resisting at first but finally falling into his uncle’s arms. The sound of Peter’s little wails wrecking both Ben and May. It would haunt May for the rest of her life, hearing her nephew so utterly devastated and she had absolutely not idea how to help him or know what he needed.

“We won’t let anything happen to you, Pete. We love you,” Ben cooed to him, rocking Peter’s small body in his strong arms.

“I miss them, Uncle Ben,” Peter managed. “I miss my mommy and daddy!” he bellowed.

“I know, son,” Ben said, unable to keep his own tears at bay. “I know,” he added with a shush as Peter seemed to be finding it hard to breathe through his tears. “Breathe, Pete,” Ben told him softly. “Just breathe, little guy.”

Ben found May’s eyes and gave her a look that radiated exactly how she felt, lost. Desolate. _Where to from here?_

“Shhh, shh,” Ben hummed, gently caressing Peter’s soft hair. “You’re safe, Pete,” he continued, take hold of Peter’s face to try and help him focus. Peter hiccupped, tears staining his rosy cheeks. “Breathe,” Ben tried again as Peter forced air into his lungs with a sharp inhale. “Good man,” Ben said, holding Peter in his grasp again, leaving a gentle peck on his forehead as he swayed his nephew. “You take all the time you need. But I’ll stay right here with you, okay?”

Pete barely responded as he settled into his uncle’s arms. May didn’t know how losing her sister and brother-in-law so brutally could pale so much in comparison to seeing what they had left behind in Peter.

Mary vowed then and there that nothing would ever hurt Peter Parker. He’d never need to feel this pain again.

* * *

“I’m running _sooo_ late, May. I overslept,” Peter explained, scampering to grab his new backpack and slinging it over his shoulder.

“I bet you did,” May replied curtly. She wasn’t born yesterday, she knew Peter had once again shirted his newly imposed curfew after finding out his secret. He’d had it coming since he’d explained this thing called “spideysense” to her. Incredulous that it was up to her 15 year old nephew to protect Queens from pending crime, violence and the like, she’s placed heavy sanctions on Peter’s freedom in order to try and keep him indoors and safe. “We got this field trip today and if I’m not on the bus soon - “

“Okay, okay,” May said from the stove where his breakfast would likely end in the bin. Staring down her nose through her glasses at her nephew as he bounded through the small apartment while sipping her morning coffee, knowing work beckoned soon for her as well. “Have fun, be safe, Pete. Try and… you know. Just be a kid today instead of a _friendly, neighbourhood_\- ”

“I promise, I will, May,” he said sincerely, snaking past and stealing a piece of cold, discarded toast from her plate from the bench. She sighed as he stood before her, a little nervous under her troubled gaze. He’d seen it a lot lately. He relaxed a little as her face softened and she took his face in her warm hands.

“Please, Pete,” she implored quietly. He sighed softly and nodded, his big eyes meeting hers.

“I will come straight home,” he told her and in his heart, wanted to believe it like she did. He gave a wry smile and brought his forehead to her lips in a strange role reversal. Another growth spurt and he was towering over her, she realised.

“Okay,” she lightly pushed him away. “Go. Have a good day,” she pretended to brush him away as he broke into a relieved grin, forcing the toast into his mouth, anything less than sweetly.

“Love you, May!” he exclaimed, before disappearing from her view.

At work later that day as May watched in horror as the spacecraft hovered over the city, she jostled for space in the window as Tony Stark’s Ironman rocketed through the clear blue sky.

She _knew _her Peter was on his field trip. She knew he was. Unable to breathe, she prayed to every deity she could think of, begging he was on that friggin’ field trip.


End file.
